Kiln furniture



Sept. 27, 1932. LADD 1.879,808'

KILN FURNITURE Filed June 29, 1951 4 lg 5 l 5 .to avoid blemishes on the finished apparent to those skilled rangement of separable Patented Sept. 27, 1932 I was FF E ' 7 EsrEnLfLAnn, or nockron'r, ILLINoI s I I KILN rumir'rnnn' Application filed me 29, 1931. Serial no; 547,555.

This invention relates to kiln furniture used for supporting ceramic products. Certain types of ceramic products, such as dishes and other table ware, are subjected to three distinct firing operations. The bisque is first hardened in a bisque kiln and, after being hardened, it is glazed and the glost ware is then fired in a glost kiln. The glost ware .may then be decorated and refired in a deco- The ceramic products are ilns on racks which are comto as kiln furniture. These of a suitable refractory marating kiln. stacked in the l monly referred racks are made .terial.

N 0 great in stacking bisque ware in a bisque kiln, but in the glost kilns and decorating kilns con? siderable care in stacking must be exercised Kiln furniture heretofore in use has not been entirely satisfactory because it has been diflicult to quickly assemble and, when used in glost and decorating kilns, it has left blemishes upon the ware which are readily in this art.

The main objects of this invention are to provide kiln furniture of knock down construction having an improved form and arparts which may be easily and quickly assembled and dismantled; to provide kiln furniture having improved means whereby dishesand similar ware may be stacked on edge without marring the ware; and to provide improved means for detachably securing the parts together.

An illustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, wherein,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a portion of a kiln showing some of the improved furniture.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of a portion of a kiln employing the improved furniture.

degree of care need be exercised product. 7

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of oneof the standards and Fig, 4 is a perspective view of one of the shelf sections- Fig. '5' is a fragmentary perspective view of 'one'of the saddles for supporting the ware on the'shelves." The improved kiln furniture to which this lnvention isapplied'is adapted for" use in connection with'many different types of kiln, and for this reason the accompanying drawing shows only as much of the kiln structure as will be elpful in-apprehending' the invent-ion;

In the form shown, they kiln includes a firing chambenlenclosed by the usual hous- 50 ing 2 through which 'a conveyor'platform 3 is moved for carrying the'oeramic ware through-the kiln. I v r .The improved furniture comprises a plu rality of on upright standards. These separable parts may be of various sizes to accommodate large and smallware. In Figure 1, two different sizes of furniture'are illustrated for use in connection with large platest and smaller 7 dishes 5. V

In'the' old types of' racks heretofore in use, thepla-tes and dishes were supported horizontally in the stack. With the improved furniture herein shown, the plates and dishes I are intended to be supported on edge. This; permits them' to be stacked more quickly than with the former types of racks.

In the construction shown, the improved furniture comprises supporting saddles 6, standards 7,. pins 8 and shelf sections ,9 and 9.1. i h i' a I The saddles 6 are supported'on theconveyor and shelf sections-in pairs in substantially parallelspaced relation for supporting the plates and dishes on edge. The saddles are preferably grooved to form spaced seats l0 for the dishes. As shown inFig. 4, the saddles are triangular in cross section, so as horizontal shelf sections supported 5 a the kiln. refractory material and thereby increase the tions 14, and arow of K through each. pin is adapted to engage two dishes. The pins 8 are also triangular in cross section and they are positioned-as shown in Fig.

up and loaded with the ware while the conveyor platform,

; may be to present sharp edges to the dishes in order to prevent marring of the glazed ware.

The standards and shelf sections are made of refractory material and absorb heat from In order to reduce the mass of efficiency of the kiln, the standards are recessed as shown at 11 and 12 and the shelf sections are recessed as shown at 13.

The standards are provided with foot porapertures 15 in which 8 are seated. The pins 8 project the pins bothsides of the standard sothat 3 so as to present sharp edges to the ware. These pins hold the dishes in spaced relation to one another and secure them against tilting.

In the construction illustrated, one edge of each of the shelf sections 9 is offset to form seats 16 which permit adjoining shelf sections to overlap as shown inF'ig. 1. The end sections 9.1 need not be providedwith these offset seats. Grooves 17 are formed in thelower faces of the shelf sections for interfitting engagement with the standards.

In operation each layer of the rack is set I before the next higher layer is constructed. With this improved form and arrangement of parts, the furniture may be quickly and easily set up and loaded or dismantled and unloaded, even such as used in annular kilns, is in motion. With this type of furniture, in which the dishes are supported on edge, the end dishes ofea'ch stack may be positioned with their bottom sides facing 4 outwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, thereby preventing heat and gases from injuring the ware. In the form shown, the movable con veyor forms the base for supporting the fur but it is obvious that the furniture supported on the base of any other type of kiln.

Although but one specific embodiment of this invention has been herein shown and described it will be understood that details of the construction may be altered without dearting from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.

I claim: H

1. Kiln furniture comprising a base for supporting ceramic ware, standards supported on said base in space relation to one another, each of said standards having a row of apertures therein, and pins 'detachably seated in said apertures, each niture,

- of said pins projecting beyond opposite sides ofits standard for engagement with the ware. I

'a plurality of 7 shelves, each of said shelves having a plusection being supported on an adjacent standard and the other end of each section being supported on an adjoining shelf section, and horizontally disposed pins extending through said standards to secure the ware against tilting.

3. Kiln furniture comprising a plurality I of shelf sections having interfitting edges, and a plurality of standards for supporting said sections, one edge of each section being supported on the upper end of an adjacent standard, the opposite edge of each section K overlapping the adj oining section.

LESTER L. LADD.

2. Kiln furniture comprising a'plurality of horizontal shelves spacedapart one above another for supporting ceramic ware, a pluf rality of standards for supporting said 

